Loose Change
by Keyblade Mistress Hikari
Summary: Brother looses his change bag. Stupid fun, uhm, ensues.


a/n: quick, clean fun; not to be taken very seriously, at all.

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Brother was sure his change was around here somewhere. He kept it in a lavender-colored bag made of velvet that smelled of Moonlily. It had been his mother's, some time ago when she was still alive, and besides being a momento of the times it also served in holding his loose change, his loose pieces of gil that he wasn't sure where to put. Sure, he had pockets. Though, those pockets had large holes in the bottom of them and it would have been very easy for his change -- his loose gil, to be more precise -- to fall straight onto the floor of the Celcius (or even worse, somewhere in Luca) and be gone forever. It had been about three weeks since he had last seen it, so he couldn't really remember where he put it.

Brother went to Rikku first. Rikku was good at finding his things, because she usually took them.

"I don't know where Ma's pouch is," Rikku had told him. "I swear, I didn't take it this time. But, y'know, once you find it, you could use that change to buy me that birthday present you owe me from six months ago. The perfume from Uha Muja you promised to get me."

Rikku's answer didn't please the Al Bhed man at all. Brother went to Yuna next. He liked Yuna and knew she would know where his loose change was.

"I'm sorry Brother," Yuna had told him politely, "but I don't know where Auntie Dea's pouch is. Perhaps you should try with Barkeep? He usually finds odd things lying around the Celcius from time to time."

Yuna's answer gave hope to the young Al Bhed man. Brother went to interrogate Barkeep next.

"Ish shomezing misshing?" the blue hypello had asked, flailing his arms high into the air. "Oh no..."

Brother raised his eyebrows at Barkeep and did not say anything, opting to go ask Paine instead. Even though Paine scared him, he was certain that she would be more levelheaded than someone who tended a bar all day.

"Go away," Paine had said curtly.

Well, Brother didn't care very much about Paine's opinion anyway.

He sought out the other members of the Celcius with his problem, but his efforts proved to be utterly fruitless.

"Haven't seen it, man," Buddy had told him.

"I'm just a kid," Shinra had responded.

It was at this point in his investigation that Brother had hit a rather large bump in the road. He needed that loose change as soon as possible; if he had it, then that lovely blitzball in the local sporting goods store in Luca would be his. All his. And if he had this blitzball, then he and the Gullwings would win many, many a blitzball tournament. This much he was certain.

Also, if he managed to get his hands on that lovely blitzball in the local sporting goods store in Luca, then he could hit Gippal in the face with it for cheating in blackjack three weeks ago.

Brother had trouble sleeping that night, once his investigation had come to a temporary halt. What would his mother say if she knew he had lost her most precious bag? She would probably give him some cake, pat his head and say that everything was going to be okay. In an afterthought, he concluded that his mother would have probably smacked him on the back of the head instead.

The night hours flew by quickly and the next day arrived. Brother had no leads. None.

"Did you check under your bed?" Rikku had asked him during breakfast. "Maybe it like, y'know, jumped or something from the night table."

Brother sighed. He checked anyway, under his bed. No dice. No change. No velvety, lavender-colored bag. He did find a pencil and some dust bunnies, though. He also found his favorite book, "Thirty Ways To Avoid Becoming A 30-Year-Old Bachelor."

His investigation had come to another halt when Rikku had instisted that he take the Gullwings to Djose Temple to wish Gippal a happy birthday. At first, Brother flat out rejected the idea of going to see the sly dog with the eyepatch. But, then Yuna insisted that it would be the kind thing to do. Brother could only help but agree with Yuna. And, as Brother considered himself a kind man who occasionally did kind things, he set course for Djose Temple.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIPPY-POO!"

Brother's face fell into one of disgust as he watched his sister fling herself onto the Machine Faction leader. Brother didn't appreciate how Gippal was handling this situation, kissing his sister and touching her butt. It was very inappropriate. They drew apart. This made Brother feel slightly better. Gippal waved to Brother. Brother scowled. All of this was leading him nowhere into his investigation of the missing change, the missing bag.

Gippal picked up a sky blue wrapped box that was next to his feet and gave it to Rikku. "Happy late birthday to you too, Cid's Girl." Rikku giggled excitedly and tore it open. It was the nicest bottle of Uha Muja perfume a few loose pieces of change money could buy.

"By the way," Gippal said, nodding in Brother's general direction, "meant to give you this back, bro." Gippal flung a velvet, lavender-colored bag over to Brother. "Thanks for letting me take it after blackjack."

When he caught his precious bag, devoid of all the loose change he had acquired overtime, Brother vowed a vendetta against Gippal that would soon prove to last a little over five years time.


End file.
